Something Blue

Recently, I created a beautiful custom skirt for a lovely plus sized bride to wear to her wedding. She already owned a stunning tight lacing corset that had been custom made for her in a beautiful silvery blue silk dupioni fabric. She wanted to wear this corset on her wedding day, and I could easily see why! It had been beautifully made; the workmanship was just lovely. The corset brought in her waist by several inches and gave her a dramatic hourglass figure, and it had a romantic, almost fairy tale feel to it.

The bride presented this photo to me as an inspiration picture. She loved the lower portion of this bridal gown, and wanted a skirt made to look like that, from the piece of silk dupioni she had remaining after her corset had been made and chiffon fabric purchased to match. I could see that we needed to take great care for this; there was exactly 44″ by 100″ of the fabric remaining and it would take all of it to be able to make a skirt with the trumpet shape and train in the inspiration picture. I drafted the pattern carefully, and double and triple checked my pattern pieces to be sure they would fit within the available fabric piece. When she let me know her muslin needed a few adjustments to fit, I offered to create a second muslin before working with the silk – an extra step I don’t often take – because we wouldn’t have a second chance once I cut the silk. And I’m glad we did this – the final version of the pattern left less than a 1/4″ of allowance from the edge of the silk fabric. Absolutely all of it was needed!

Once the silk skirt was sewn up, I was able to drape the layered ruffles of chiffon fabric that sort of cascade down the skirt. I studied the inspiration picture at this point, to try to create a very similar shape and feel to the original, but proportioned for the skirt. This both required that the chiffon begin lower on the skirt than where her corset would sit, and that it be of a length to drape beautifully on a shorter and wider figure than the model in the inspiration picture.

I’m really proud of the end result on this item, and I think my client will look simply breathtaking on her wedding day!

Silk Brocade Corset

This beautiful corset was made with a stunning silk brocade fabric over high quality cotton coutil. It was custom designed with a high back and open bust. The corset has a front busk closure, and laces up the back through 44 metal grommets! 22 pieces of steel boning provide incredible support and beautiful shaping.

This stunning corset was created for one of my clients on etsy. If you haven’t seen it already, check out my shop to view other items available for sale or to request a custom piece!

Corset

I’m in a rush today but wanted to post pics of this gorgeous corset!

This was custom made for the woman wearing it, but I have an Etsy listing for making to order a similar corset sized to fit.

A Merry Maiden

I promised before that I would post again with some of the costumes I created for this year’s Renaissance Festival. At long last here is one maiden wearing the fine garments I was able to make for her!

The full length skirt for this ensemble was made from a brightly colored woven cotton fabric that’s comfortable and cool. It has a gathered elasticized waistband.

Her chemise is made from white cotton muslin. It’s a short chemise, coming just past the waist, with three quarter sleeves and a gathered neckline. The shorter lengths are ideal in the blazing Florida heat.

The crowning jewel of the costume is the gorgeous Victorian style overbust corset. Made from soft crushed velvet over a sturdier support fabrics, her corset is both beautiful and durable. Inside, the corset is reinforced with 20 pieces of thick steel boning for a supportive fit and beautiful shaping! The back is studded with closely spaced steel grommets to allow tight lacing and a snug fit.

At last!

I’ve been working on this piece for months now I think, but here we go, at long last, a beautiful custom fitted and designed burlesque style corset!

To be honest, I don’t think the dress form does it justice. She’s not quite the same shape as the person for whom this was fitted (nor is she fleshy and moveable) so it sits differently on her. But you can see the detail. There’s a layer of lace over the pink satin for the body, with black velvet ribbons over all the seam lines. The ruffle at the top and the skirty flounce at the bottom are both crepon sheer with a 1/4″ pink satin ribbon at the edge, and it’s a purchased fringe trim. It has detachable garters too (not shown here), just in case!

A very tardy corset update

The past month or so have been busy for me, both at work and home, and I’ve had far less time to sew of late. But, little by little, I’ve been making progress on the custom designed corset. I hope to have it finished in the next few days, but thought I might as well give an update for the moment.

The muslin took three attempts to get a really great fit. Sadly, the photos don’t do it justice, as my molded plastic dress form doesn’t respond quite the same as a real body does to being squished into stiff tight fabric. We lengthened the front, added more fullness in the rear, and altered it to be a sweetheart neckline. The final version here really did create the desired effect on its wearer – but you’ll have to trust me on that.

The actual corset is a soft pink satin that its wearer chose. The particular satin chosen though wasn’t nearly stiff or heavy enough to create a shaping garment, so the heavier woven cotton used for our muslin ended up serving as a middle layer for the corset, lined inside and covered with the pink satin on the outside.

We chose a spiral steel boning as it’s a bit sturdier than plastic boning. Since spiral steel boning isn’t sold already in casings, the process is a little different. One can sew a casing for the steel boning, insert the boning, and sew the casing to the garment as you would for plastic boning. Alternately, one can use what is called the “sandwich” method by sewing two layers of corset fabric together, and topstitching channels into which the boning can be inserted. I opted for the latter.

Once the right shape was established, two layers sewn together, and boning installed I was able to work on the outer layer (which I have not yet photographed – you’ll just have to wait for the final product to see that!), which was made of pink satin and lace, with black velvet ribbons topstitched over the seam lines. Our design plan included a little ruffle at the top, and a fuller one at the bottom, made from a sheer black fabric that would be crisp enough to hold its shape. The fabric store had limited offerings when we went, but ultimately a shimmery crepon sheer was selected.

The fabric is lovely, but it’s a woven fabric, which means it’s strongest desire in life is to unravel. I suggested we pick up some thin pink ribbon, which I could stitch along the raw edge to finish it. In fact, I found it easiest to stitch the ribbon down close to, but not right at the edge, and then trim the excess. After I sewed the first length and trimmed, I found that this did nothing to prevent the fabric unraveling (it just slowed it slightly as the threads had to work their was around the stitching). When I gathered the crepon to make a ruffle, the result was a lovely sheer black fabric, trimmed in pink ribbon, with hairy threads sticking up all over the place above. Not the effect we’d wanted. The solution? A thin bead of clear flexible fabric glue applied to the back side of the fabric along the length of the ribbon. No more fraying!

At present, all of the corset layers have been sewn together and the ruffles added, and it’s just waiting on the zipper and the final bit of trim before it will be complete! I hope to post the final pics in the next day or so. See you then!

Something sexy

I’ve been asked to make a corset (FUN!). We’re planning on a strapless corset for a fairly full figured gal, so it really needs to fit just like a glove in order to provide enough support.  And that means… a muslin!  Modeled here by my dress form is the first version.  Right off the bat, it’s too loose overall but not roomy enough in the lower back/ booty, and she’d like it a little longer in the front to hit at a more flattering point.  I’m reworking the pattern to adjust for these issues and we’ll try it again.

I’ll try to post a little pic of our design plan for it soon.  In the meantime here’s a picture of the first muslin.

Under Dress

I’ve been in an absolute frenzy the past few days but making so much wonderful progress!  I now am far enough along on my Aunt Bonnie’s white dress to have something worth showing. 

The photos below show the foundation for the corset and bodice, as well as one of the three skirt layers.  I debated sewing all three layers directly to the outer dress.  Instead, the two layers of chiffon will be attached to the outer dress and the lining is attached here.  This way the seams can face towards each other and a finished surface is what will face towards the body, which I imagine will be more comfortable.

In the outer dress the distinction between the corset and bust will be a bit more pronounced, as they’ll be made of different fabrics.  For the under dress, different fabric wasn’t necessary and the boning runs the full length to provide the best support.  Still I think you can really begin to see the shape this dress is taking!

Progress Report

Bonnie came over Thursday afternoon to try on the test corset.  It looks like a pretty much perfect fit!  I also showed her the skirt muslin and we talked about the design a little bit more; and I have a green light to continue as planned, no further modifications needed.  Hooray!

This has taken less time and tweaking than the first dress, which makes sense since it’s the second time I’ve sewn for my aunt Bonnie, and a bit more aware of the details to fitting for her.  It’s very nice to spend less time on the pattern and get to move on to the dress!

So, Thursday afternoon and Friday morning (my days off, by the way) I got to work on the actual fabric.  All that had arrived so far was the chiffon and the fabric lining.  I didn’t even have my nice quality thread to sew with.  I cut every single piece of lining and chiffon I would need, and pinned them all together, and had them waiting in a pile.

Finally, Friday afternoon a box with all my remaining items from JoAnn’s arrived (hooray!) and I was off in a frenzy sewing and serging and ironing.  I’ve made splendid progress.  All three layers of the skirt are sewn together, and the lining for the corset and bodice is all sewn.  I’ve also cut and pinned the first of 2 layers of satin for the corset and bodice, and will hopefully have time to sew that together this evening.

No photos yet… nothing was really to a point where I could put it up on the dress form.  But I’ll take some in the next day or two I’m sure.

More Muslin!

I put together a quick muslin for the skirt, using the final version of the pattern we made for Bonnie’s black and blue dress, sewn out of the diaper twill.  I did this for 2 purposes.  First, it allowed me to make sure that the top edge of the corset turned out right.  As you can see in the pics, it’s pretty much spot on perfect in the front!  In the back, the corset comes up a bit too high, and I’ve marked it accordingly so I can trim down the corset and pattern pieces.  The second goal for this skirt muslin, was to be able to trace the lower edge of the corset onto the dress skirt.  I will transfer these lines over to be able to make new pattern pieces for the skirt that will fit right onto the lower edge of the corset.

As a bonus, I can also see more of the final shape of the dress!  I really think it’s going to turn out beautifully.  On the dress form at least, I think point where the corset stops and the skirt begins is pretty much perfect.

Bonnie is coming this afternoon to try on the test corset.  I’m also just crossing my fingers and hoping that the rest of the fabric will arrive today!  If so, I can get into the *real* sewing.